Canyons Runs at 3C2A State Championships, Women’s Squad Takes Ninth

By Jesse Muñoz/COC Sports Information Director 

FRESNO — College of the Canyons took a run in the rain at the 2024 California Community College Athletic Association (3C2A) Cross Country State Championships at Woodward Park in Fresno on Saturday, highlighted by an eighth-place individual result from freshman Victoria Jamison that also pushed the women's squad to ninth in the team standings.

Jamison earned Junior College All-American Honors and was also named to the 3C2A All-State First-Team after clocking a time of 19:07.3 on what was a wet and muddy 5K course.

The freshman from Saugus High School, who previously finished fifth (19:08.2) at the 3C2A Southern California Regional Championships earlier this month and fourth (18:19.3) at the Western State Conference (WSC) championships on Oct. 25, finished in the top eight of every community college event she competed at this season. 

Jamison's result at the state championships was the top finish for a COC women's runner since Danielle Salcedo won the 3C2A individual state title in 2021. That time also placed her sixth among Southern California runners and second among WSC competition at the state meet.

COC sophomore Katelyn Catu capped her Cougar cross country career in Fresno with a time of 21:05.5 too finish 70th in the field of 172 runners. Freshman Alyssa Arriaga was next in 78th with her time of 21:13.8. 

Frosh Giselle Ruiz (21:42.8/103rd) and Lilianna Moreira (21:44.4/104th) were the final scoring runners for Canyons. 

Kassidy Vargas (22:31.1/128th) and Emily Fairbanks (23:27.4/150th) also ran for the Cougars but were not included in the final team scoring.

San Diego Mesa College (85) won the women's state championship followed by Clovis Community College (125), Mt. San Antonio College (130), American River College (245) and Orange Coast College (248) across the top five spots. 

Hartnell College (266), Moorpark College (278), Riverside City College (280), Canyons (289) and College of the Sequoias (311) followed in the next five positions. Rhiannon Walker of Clovis Community College was the individual state champion at a time of (18:22.9). 

The COC women's program has now competed at the state championship meet on 10 occasions, including five straight campaigns dating back to 2019. 

COC's Men's Team Finishes 23rd at State Meet

Canyons freshman Nathaniel Wilkinson was the top finisher for a Cougars squad that placed 23rd in the team standings.

Entering just five runners in the event it was Wilkinson (22:01.4/47th), Jack Eaton (16:04.2/67th) and Nathan Parras (23:26/141st) representing the top three finishers for the Cougars. 

Musa Rahman (23:42.6/159th) and Raul Rosas (31:36.7/192nd) rounded out the COC entrants. 

San Diego Mesa (47) completed the meet sweep by winning the men's team state title ahead of runner-up Mt. SAC (98) and San Bernardino Valley College (144) in third. 

The 2024 cross country state championship meet was the 60th such event in the 3C2A's men's cross country history, and the 47th running for the women's side. 

Full event results are included here.

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